


Sometimes The Truth Hurts

by runeofluna



Series: Not all Nara cast such large shadows [1]
Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Genre: Arguing With Your Loved Ones, Canon Compliant, Clan Disagreements, Gen, I Love My Babies, I mean come on none of the characters mentioned are even mentioned in Naruto I think, Nara Shikako (mentioned), Nara Yuumei (mentioned), Standing up for what you believe in, for Dreaming of Sunshine not Naruto, grabby hands, maybe Kofuku was, not sure, please love Yuumei-chan and Kirari-chan, they're my children now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-23 23:40:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16628711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runeofluna/pseuds/runeofluna
Summary: but I never expected how much.aka the hospital fiasco comes back up and affects a lot more Nara than expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so, people at discord were talking about how much they hated Kofuku, so I decided to write a snippet of Takatori throwing shade at her. Except it kinda spiralled from there?  
> ...another case of there-wasn't-supposed-to-be-feels.  
> aka Takatori is torn up with disappointment and anger towards his beloved aunt and isn't afraid to show it.

Takatori heaved out a long sigh. He really didn’t want to do this, he’d known and worked with Kofuku-oba at R&D for years now and respected her quite a bit. And he didn’t want to argue with her, or worse, disappoint her, but at the same time, he didn’t want to fail his baby cousin either. (Yes, Shikako-chan may now be a special jounin who could totally kick his ass in a spar any day, but he had been one of many almost-genin Academy students to babysit the twins when all the adults had been so busy after October tenth, there was a part of him that could never think of them as anything else.)

He swore internally at Yuumei for bringing up this whole shitstorm. He hadn’t really known her all that well before the sealing classes, she was 6 years younger than him and a field chuunin after all. But she had cornered him after a research group meeting and had started asking him questions about what exactly Shikako-chan’s deal with R&D was, and had brought some unsettling issues to light. It wasn’t really Yuumei’s fault, he knew that. It was just so much easier to curse her out for pointing out something uncomfortable, as unprofessional as it was, but he was determined to not choose the easy option for once, not this time.

No point in dragging this out any longer, he grimaced, before he called out, “Hey, Kofuku-oba-san, do you have some time?”

“What is it, Takatori?”

Kofuku-oba answered without even looking up, her eyes still locked on paperwork – a quick glance confirmed they were reports on testing the shadow prosthetic limbs, which… was appropriate, he supposed, for what he was about to bring up.

“See, the thing is, oba-san, I think you’ve been leaving out some important details from the last favor you asked of me.”

He bit down hard on the instinct to flinch as Kofuku-oba looked up and frowned at him, her eyes sharpening in a way that never failed to intimidate him.

“Oh? The last favor I asked from you was about that disaster with the hospital, and I’m fairly confident I filled you in on all the pertinent information.”

At that – at that, he didn’t find it so difficult to stop himself from cowering, because that was _wrong_. He felt himself swell a bit with indignation and hung on to that emotion with an iron grip as he let the words flow out.

“Are you honestly sure? Because I rather distinctly remember you telling me that that particular ‘disaster’ as you put it happened because Shikako-chan was so _careless_ and _neglectful of proper procedures_ when she took that seal for her medic friends to look at. Except I’m starting to think that hasn’t been the case.”

He hoped – really, genuinely hoped – that Kofuku-oba would just admit that she’d left out some details because of pride and reassure him that she’d apologized to Shikako-chan already, and that Shikako-chan avoiding R&D like the plague was just a ‘once bitten, twice shy’ sort of thing. But a part of him already knew it was a futile hope, just from Kofuku-oba’s dark look.

“Has she been telling you tales, Takatori? That is exactly what happened, and obviously she hasn’t learned to be humble and accepting of her mistakes if she has been whining to you about something that was taken care of – by the clan, no less – so long ago. Honestly, she really needs to grow up, she’s a special jounin now and she’s still going to her cousin to talk behind my back rather than confront me directly? That’s quite unbecoming of her position.”

He’d expected this – he really had, a part of him had known this would be how oba-san would react ever since Yuumei had cornered him and demanded to know _why_ the clan R&D wasn’t watching the back of one of their own – but it still felt like a punch to the gut. Both in that it hurt, hurt so hard he felt like he couldn’t breathe, and also in that it _pissed him off_.

“That you immediately jumped to the conclusion that Shikako-chan was the one to come and speak to me is rather concerning itself, oba-san. Just what did she ever do to make you think that she wouldn’t take care of her problems herself? No, I’m here because I only recently realized that the orientation she took after that particular fiasco wasn’t a punishment redo, but was in fact her first one.”

He saw oba-san trying to butt in, and consciously refused to stop speaking and carried on.

“No matter how skilled she may be and a talented researcher she is, you can’t expect anyone to know proper procedures if they never learned them in the first place. And you can’t be neglectful of something that you didn’t know existed in the first place, either. So, I’m asking you again, oba-san. What other details have you been neglecting to mention?”

At this point, Kofuku-oba really was quite red, and she was glowering at him with the full might of her displeasure. He _really_ didn’t give a damn right now.

“I hadn’t known that she hadn’t gone through the orientation myself when I was calling you up in the _middle of the night_ because the hospital had accused her of _human experimentation_ , Takatori! And quite frankly, just what does she think the Nara R&D is, did she honestly not expect us to have sensible precautions such as safety procedures and education about them? If she hadn’t received anything of the sort when working on something like explosions and seals measuring chakra control – something that by definition necessitates human test subjects – then she obviously should have spoken up about such a glaring lack. I was simply trying not to draw attention to such criminal lack of common sense on her part, and look what I get for a small kindness. Accusations and disrespect towards me, from my own clan member no less!”

He gaped – literally gaped with his jaw dropped – he couldn’t believe his ears. Wha- this had to be a bad joke. He could not have heard that. Oba-san did not just- His voice actually squeaked as he began to sputter out,

“Accusations and disrespect? You’re speaking of accusations and disrespect? Shikako-chan’s the one who should be speaking up about _accusations and disrespect_! It’s beyond disturbing that you think like that, oba-san. What, you literally just said that she should have spoken up about not receiving something she should have no reason to suspect existing in the first place? And that failing to do something impossible like that is a _criminal lack of common sense_ now?”

A part of him could see that oba-san was saying something back, but he was seeing too much red to read lips and was shouting too loudly at this point that her voice was drowned out by sheer volume.

“The fact that we hadn’t asked our _own clanmate_ whether she had received something that is – as you put it – a sensible precaution is what _I_ call criminal lack of common sense. The fact that we haven’t apologized as a group for jumping her back about it once we found out about our false assumptions is criminal lack of common sense. The fact that you’re framing your refusal to admit your mistakes as a, a small _kindness_ is _criminal lack of common sense_!”

He was furious on Shikako-chan’s behalf. Actually, no, he was mature enough to admit that part of his frustration was sheer disappointment at how not only had his pedestal for his oba-san just crashed to pieces, but to realize that someone he genuinely respected and admired was actually so very petty and refusing to acknowledge when she was in the wrong.

That didn’t mean his protective rage – and god, was Shikako-chan the only person who had been wrongly blamed, or had there been others he simply hadn’t known about? he wasn’t the most attentive to people, he knew that, had there been other clan members who had been burned by Kofuku-oba, by his beloved R&D? – for his cousin wasn’t valid.

And thinking of Shikako-chan, and exactly what oba-san had said about her, managed to snap some connections into place. Not that they were _fun_ connections to make, in fact he dearly hoped he was wrong but also knew he’d be proved right.

“See, oba-san, I’ve actually known you and worked with you for over a decade at this point, and I’m fairly certain the last time you complained about how someone ‘didn’t speak up about something they didn’t know about in the first place’, that was when Yoshino-sama didn’t realize about some of the forms that she should have filled out in Shikaku-sama’s place when he was in the hospital after that one mission went FUBAR.”

Seeing Kofuku-oba’s face go from crimson to puce as she sputtered was enough of an answer. Takatori felt his shoulders slump, at this point he didn’t have the energy to be furious at her, all he could feel was a simmering sense of bitter disappointment. He wished he could pretend that his oba-san was still the kind and driven aunt he’d known all his life, couldn’t avoid the sense of resentment he felt for Yuumei at forcing him to confront this. More than anything, he wanted to go to Shikaku-sama’s home and give Shikako-chan a good big hug and an apology, and an apology to Yoshino-sama as well, but he wasn’t sure Shikako-chan would even accept either. Not that he blamed her, he damn well deserved it. It shouldn’t have taken Yuumei questioning him for him to try and see the situation from Shikako-chan’s point of view. He should have directly asked her in the first place.

He cut off oba-san in the middle of her angered ramblings.

“Great job, Kofuku-oba-san. Amazing job at alienating the clan R&D from our clan’s best prodigy and the village’s rising fūinjutsu expert. But you need to apologize-“

He spoke right over her as she cut in loudly.

“You need to apologize to Shikako. Even if you couldn’t care less about Yoshino-sama and Shikako-chan, you still care about the clan R&D and the clan as a whole, right? The increased tension between the Head’s family and the R&D is bad for the clan, and you’re losing us so many resources she would have been happy to share with us before this, this fiasco. You were literally looking at proof of that when I came in.”

He waved his hand in the general direction of the paperwork Kofuku-oba had been reading. She’d gone silent by this point.

“You won’t have to interact with her – in fact, please don’t. I’ll be happy to be her liaison if it means you can’t stab her in the back like this again. But apologies from me will only go so far when it comes to rebuilding broken ties. Just, just think about this, oba-san. _Please_.”

When he left the room, the only thought still in his head was, _I need a freaking drink_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fights in the family never only affect one person.
> 
> aka Yuumei's side of the story, from her best friend's point of view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for anyone on discord who were excited about Yuumei!  
> Nara Yuumei is a DoS canon character who showed up all of once in the sealing class. I stole her and ran with it XD  
> Yamanaka Kirari is entirely my own invention. They're the same age as Hana, Shin, and he-who-they-do-not-acknowledge.  
> Please enjoy!
> 
> Edit 2018.11.16 A lot of the opinions and factions that Yuumei describes here drives heavily from discussions on dos discord and a reddit discussion post: https://www.reddit.com/r/DreamingOfSunshine/comments/9x910p/was_kofuku_and_the_nara_rd_justified/?utm_source=reddit-android   
> So kudos to the fandom!

Yamanaka Kirari could hardly stop bouncing as she bounded towards her best friend since childhood, Nara Yuumei. Yuumei was idly chatting with Akimichi Tsubame, at their usual table at Hyakumi, which obviously meant that Yuumei already knew exactly what Kirari was planning to bring up and that she would rather be in a comfortable place for the friendly interrogation. Then again, what was friendship if not humoring each other’s vices?

“By the Sage, Yuumei-chan, do you have any idea what rumors are flying around? Come on, tell me, did you really set up the whole ‘situation’ with the Nara R&D?”

By the way Yuumei was lazily rolling her eyes, she probably had the entire conversation already scripted out in her head, which wouldn’t do. She might not be a Nara but she did love to take the other kunoichi off-guard, and not even Nara knew everything – especially when it came to the nature of gossip. They found it too troublesome – or at least, they did when they had to actually go out and gather it themselves rather than cheat by having their fabulous Yamanaka teammates gather and pick out all the relevant bits.

“Don’t give me that look, Yuumei-chan, I have it on authority that you somehow managed to drag up the-“ her voice dropped to a low whisper that was probably better heard via lip-reading as she continued, “-old scandal of Nara Shikaku-sama and Yoshino-sama’s marriage and that there’s an ugly fight upstairs in the classic passive-aggressive methods of you Nara. That’s not even touching on the fact that apparently R&D wants to try their hand at scouting Shikako-chan again. Although I’m fairly sure Tamashiro-san cares more about one-upping Tsume-sama at this point.”

Aah, there was that eyebrow twitch. (She only knew one person who had had a more eloquent eyebrow, but she didn’t mention it. None of her Academy classmates liked to acknowledge his existence.)

“I didn’t exactly set it up per se. I just wanted to clarify some things, and Takatori was just one of the best sources I could find. Besides, I didn’t really think it would spread this quickly.”

The ‘I know we’re allied clans, but who exactly was stupid enough to tell you about the Head of the clan and the clan R&D having a go at each other’ was unsaid but understood. Kirari only grinned brightly as she deliberately kept the conversation light, the slightest deliberate twirl of her hair being enough to assure her outwardly disinterested friend that she would receive details at a less exposed place.

“That’s because you’re a field ninja, Yuumei-chan, you don’t know the sheer amount of gossip we administrative ninja go through. All it takes is one Nara in the village R&D to spill one drop and in maybe an hour everyone in the tower knows all the juicy details. Everyone who actually knows anything, not including you combat crazies, is saying that you’re the one who convinced Nara R&D to start a miniature civil war inside itself about who was right. You Nara really don’t do anything by halves once you’re interested, huh?”

A sly smirk aimed at Yuumei didn’t so much as touch her vaguely insulted look at the term ‘combat crazies’, which didn’t really suit her friend’s lazy Nara tendencies, Kirari had to agree. But it was Yuumei herself who’d requested that Kirari no longer censor the usual slang that the tower nin used amongst themselves, so the blonde deftly ignored it.

“It’s not exactly a fun situation to be in, you know. Pretty much every field shinobi thinks it’s stupid that nobody in the clan bothered to apologize about the whole not-giving-the-orientation thing, and there’s a decent number of the more research-oriented clan members who feel betrayed that that detail wasn’t mentioned by Kofuku-oba-san.”

She nodded along at that, that was pretty much expected. She also couldn’t help but wonder if Kofuku-san would stay head of Nara R&D after this mess was sorted out, she had lost quite a bit of respect and goodwill over the exposal of her coverup, but she was without a doubt a skilled researcher and had years of experience to back her up. Not to mention there were probably a decent number of Nara who were on her side – after all, a civil war was only called that if both sides were relatively equal.

“But there’s also quite a number of clan members who agree that R&D hadn’t really fucked up, considering technically Shikako-chan wasn’t really working with the clan R&D so much as just having the name on the roster for library access. After all, from the R&D’s point of view, the project she had been using the library for research had ages to go until any actual human testers were needed, and they were as blindsided as anyone that Shikako-chan whipped out a completely unrelated seal and decided to go and get her medic friends to test it out.”

Which, Kirari thought, made quite a bit of sense when you put it like that. It didn’t mean Nara R&D was blameless – if they were going to let her put the name on the roster they really should have gone through all the procedures, they were there for a reason after all – but it wasn’t like jounin-track ninja getting more privileges from the clan or the village in general was exactly a new thing, and streamlining the usual procedures so the Head’s daughter could have easy access to the clan archives was hardly the worst example on the list.

But also, Yuumei-chan had just reminded her of something else she really should check up on. Why exactly had those ‘medic friends’ not known about the hospital regulations about untested seals? Had they just assumed that since she was a clan kunoichi – and a Nara at that, the name wasn’t exactly unfamiliar for anyone in the hospital – that it was obviously authorized? Or maybe they hadn’t covered the regulations yet?

She just hoped none of said ‘friends’ had been deliberately squashing any questions that could have been raised to try and get Shikako-kun into trouble, that was an extremely underhanded thing to do to a fellow Konoha shinobi. Unfortunately, she knew from experience that there were definitely some people who resented clan kids – and especially heirs at that – for ‘having it easy’ and ‘coasting on the clan name’.

She tuned back in time to see Yuumei raising an eyebrow at her, and grinned sheepishly in apology for spacing out even if it couldn’t have been longer than a couple seconds. She’d have to play shogi later in apology, it would be fitting since Yuumei was humouring her own hobbies at the moment. The other girl only huffed before continuing the impromptu report – and really, Yuumei-chan wondered where she got information when her best friend was a perfect picture of an internal politics leak? Didn’t she think there were other Nara who would spill to their own Yamanaka or Akimichi friends?

“-and then there’s the people who don’t think R&D was wrong initially, they might have come across as heavy-handed but it did save her from anything too serious happening and the division got punished as a whole on top of it, but that they fucked up handling it later on when Shikako-chan started to avoid them. Basically, pretty much everyone agrees Kofuku-oba-san was wrong to try and cover up the no previous orientation thing since just apologizing about it would have been much less of a mess, but everything else is still up for debate.”

“So… what exactly is your own opinion on this mess? You avoid troublesome things like the plague, so I’d really like to know what could get you to go through all that work to bring up this whole thing and begin this ‘not exactly a fun situation’, as you put it.”

Kirari honestly was curious about that, Yuumei was usually fairly laid back, like most born Nara tended to be – Shikako-chan was an exception – and as far as she was aware the other girl hadn’t really been close to the fūinjutsu prodigy either. Something about how the girl had chakra hypersensitivity and was unlikely to ever be a shinobi – and she really wanted to laugh at that, she was Intel, she knew exactly what the other girl had apparently pulled at the grass exams – and so most shinobi of her generation had stayed away in fear of the girl wanting to be like them. (which was totally stupid, considering everyone had expected her own twin to be a ninja – what exactly had they thought the girl would do?)

“It’s just that oba-san apparently tried to cover up her failure to adequately give Shikako-chan an orientation about safety procedures and regulations on research as Shikako-chan being neglectful. Which is just plain stupid, it turned something that could have easily been resolved and instead made a giant rift in their working relationship, and now Shikako-chan would sooner mark all her seals as weapons rather than let the clan R&D work with her. Besides, the whole internal tension thing is beyond stupid, anyway.”

Kirari didn’t deign to reply to that, it was an answer, yes, but she was obviously leaving something out. Knowing each other went both ways, after all.

“…we’re clan, we’re supposed to be family, Kirari. How can you trust your own family when they’d rather drag your name through the mud than admit they made a mistake? How can you trust your clan when they’d sooner stab your back than watch it? It’s just… this is the kind of thing that can make or break a team on the field, Kirari. The kind of thing that can be the difference between life and death, especially if you consider even half the rumours of her missions going wrong to be true.”

She hummed as she parsed through Yuumei’s words. The field kunoichi’s tone had conveyed how genuinely disturbed she was, and it matched up with what she had mentioned about how all the Nara field shinobi were upset at the lack of apology. Not that the situation wouldn’t have been upsetting to her, or to any of her formerly-genin-corps friends, but they were far too used to their dearest Yuuhi-sensei pulling worse shit to cover his own oh-how-dearly-they-wish-to-kick-it arse. Kirari suddenly felt old, she was apparently too jaded to be indignantly upset the way her best friend was.

“…wow, that’s a big thing. No wonder you were willing to kick up a hornet’s nest. Exactly how did you end up digging up something like that in the first place, though? Did it come up in the sealing course or something?”

She was changing the subject, and she knew Yuumei could tell she was changing the subject, but there was a reason the other girl had stayed her best friend even as their careers split.

“Not directly, it’s just that Kofuku-oba-san had plainly stated that she was there to work on the shadow prosthetic Shikamaru-kun is using. I mean, Shikako-chan developed the thing, so why wasn’t she already in knees-deep on the whole thing to provide answers to questions and stuff like that?”

Kirari throttled her own wince at the oh-so-casual mention of the Nara heir’s injury. She could see how Yuumei’s shoulders had stiffened just the slightest bit before relaxing at her non-reaction.

“Good point. So that’s the stuff you wanted clarification on, when you went to, Takatori-san, was it?”

“I mean, I did poke around a bit before that. It could have just been her being busy in the field or training or something, she is already a special jounin and we all heard the rumours about the whole mist thing, so I wasn’t really sure. But you dragged me to your friends hanging out at Hyakumi that one time and they made me realize that people like Yuuhi-sensei apparently existed, so I wanted to check. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed to realize that our head of R&D was apparently from the same stock.”

Oh? Kirari didn’t bother to hide her pleased smirk, apparently the meet-and-greet with her former genin corps friends had done quite a bit more than she had intended when it came to widening her friend’s worldview. She carefully hid how her mood soured at the mere mention of the man, and instead reminded herself of what administrative chaos Nara Shikako had unleashed last time. It would most likely be even better this time around, and she made a mental note to send Umino-san a gift basket for setting the girl on Yuuhi-sensei, people just didn’t know how devious the Academy teacher could be.

There was only one other thing she wanted to know.

“So… why didn’t you just take it up to Kofuku-san yourself instead of subtly egging on Takatori-san?”

Yuumei rolled her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which, knowing the Nara, it might as well be to her, and Kirari didn’t bother to stop the urge to stick her tongue out at her. Of course, that only lead to more eye-rolling.

“I mean, I’m not Nara R&D even if I am a Nara. I’m not the directly wronged party, I’m not the party that wronged her either, I’m just an outsider looking in even if this is an internal clan matter. This would have been best received from another Nara R&D member rallying against the coverup of a failure of the system. He’s an insider who’s been part of R&D for years, they’d accept him criticizing their own a lot better.”

“Nice political reason, the actual reason?”

The other girl gave her a half-hearted glare before sighing.

“…Kofuku-oba-san is family. Even if what she did really upsets me, I… I thought there would be a better chance of her actually changing her behaviour if it was Takatori bringing it up. He genuinely likes her and respects her. I thought, hoped, that him being so upset and disappointed would manage to prod her into really looking back at her own actions.”

She sounded so dejected that Kirari swept her into a hug. She whispered in her distraught friend’s ear,

“The truth may hurt… but it’s always the first step to healing. Your clan, your family needed this, Yuumei-chan. And if you ask me? So did Kofuku-san.”

Her last words were what finally broke Yuumei’s restraint as she quietly sagged into Kirari.

“You didn’t betray her, Yuumei-chan. You didn’t betray Kofuku-san.”


End file.
